For an image with well-done stars and an epic background, Dave Dev won the Photo of the Week on October 2, 2020 for his image of Barnard 150, the Seahorse Nebula.
Barnard 150 is a dark nebula located in Cepheus. Dev captured this image of the object from Ayton, Ontario, in September 2020.
He said he used a Nikon D5500 camera and a Redcat 51mm (f/5) to capture the image, 3 min subs totalling 7.7 hours of data.
Jeff Donaldson’s capture of the Andromeda Galaxy and its neighbours took the honourable mention this week, with one judge noting the “nice histogram and nice stars.”
Shooting from Enfield, Nova Scotia, Donaldson said he used a Celestron Nightscape 8300 and a Sky-Watcher ED80 Pro (f/7) to capture Messier 31 over a few weeks in September 2020.
He also noted he shot the Ha during a full Moon, and he used PixInsight for processing.
The RGB imaging is a four-panel mosaic for 48 frames of 300 seconds each, for a total of four hours. Donaldson said the Ha was captured in a four-panel mosaic, six frames at 1,200 seconds each for a total of two hours. He used an Optolong L-eNhance filter, only keeping red channel.
Prizes for the 2020-21 SkyNews Photo of the Week contest are sponsored by Sky-Watcher, Celestron, iOptron and The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Click here for more details on the prize packages that will be awarded to the best photos this year.
